7 CRINGE-WORTHY MISTAKES YOU’RE MAKING WITH YOUR CONTENT

Has this happened to you?

You’re posting blog articles, social media updates, email newsletters, and taking all avenues of sharing content to the moon. But, feel like you’re getting no response in return.

What could be going wrong?!

Content is a HUGE part of successful marketing. You want to be engaging and get in front of your audience, but you may be overlooking some key content mistakes.

To stop you from spinning your wheels and feeling deflated, check out common mistakes a ton of people make with their content marketing strategy.

CONTENT MISTAKE #1: YOUR EMAIL LIST FLATLINED

Did you stop growing your email list? Uh oh! That may be your first big mistake!

I know I say this a lot, but email marketing is where it’s at! It’s 40 times more effective than social media, brings traffic to your website, and to top it off, email newsletters are easy to create. Winner!

And, did you know that every dollar you spend on email marketing can have a return of $38?

Plus, the conversion rate is three times higher than social media with a 17 percent higher value for each conversion. Boom! That’s definitely worth fine-tuning your email list to maximize growth.

What makes email marketing so successful?

Your email subscribers are loyal and engaged.

Your email subscribers are the first to comment and take action on your blog posts.

Your email subscribers are most like to take action on your promotions.

CONTENT MISTAKE #2: YOUR CONTENT IS BORING YOUR READER

What helps you connect with your readers?

Tell a great story! Connect on a personal level by sharing experiences that are relatable. Be authentic. Your content should be clear and well-organized for your target audience.

If you think your content is kinda boring, get some feedback from friends and family. It helps to have people on the outside looking in to share what is or isn’t interesting about your content. Better content gets better results!

Crucial Note: Don’t forget to check for spelling and grammar mistakes! A reader who has to battle through grammar errors will have a hard time navigating through your message. Your reader will be less likely to subscribe to your email newsletters or online services. You will quickly lose a customer. Big no-no!

CONTENT MISTAKE #3: YOU STOPPED FOCUSING ON YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

Who is your ideal customer? Did you lose sight of writing content that appeals to them?

Always keep your audience in mind as you develop content. This will force you to create super-focused content. That’s what you want! You want to identify and focus on a specific topic that appeals to your potential customers.

Discipline yourself to write every word with the audience persona in mind. How do they talk? What drives them to make decisions? Put yourself in their shoes as you write and review your content.

If you’re wondering what your current relationship status is then take my quiz…

CONTENT MISTAKE #4: YOUR CONTENT ISN’T OPTIMIZED FOR MOBILE

Have you ever landed on a mobile page to find that it’s hard to navigate around? The website is too large to view on your phone or it’s glitchy when you try to scroll.

Most people quickly back out of a website if they have to scroll back and forth to read all the words on the page. You wanna be mobile-friendly!

The number of mobile users is far beyond the number of desktop users nowadays. This means it is critical to optimize your website for mobile. Plus, Google started penalizing websites that aren’t mobile-friendly in 2015 to focus on driving traffic to pages that have an optimized user experience.

This means your mobile site should be readable, easy to navigate and include easy-to-click links. Plus, your content should be easy to consume on mobile.

White space is your reader’s best friend. Think of white space as a guide for your reader, directing them through your post. It will make your content not only more readable and enjoyable, your readers will more likely read the entire content.

If your website or blog isn’t optimized, change it fast! You don’t want to get too far behind the curve or miss out on driving traffic to your page.

CONTENT MISTAKE #5: YOUR FORMATTING SUCKS

How do you jazz it up and make your content sparkle?! You need to split it into sections. Here are some awesome ways to stylize your content for all the page skimmers in the world.

Make sure your sections are consistent

Use a lot of bold subheadings

Add block quotes when possible

Write in a conversational style

Add interactive elements

Spice up your images

Write small sentences

Add plenty of space

CONTENT MISTAKE #6: YOUR CONTENT IS NO LONGER RELEVANT

Is your content Evergreen? Will it be of interest to people now and in the future? Or, was it only relevant for a short window of time?

Your content needs to be valuable for the future. Evergreen content is also a huge time-saver as you won’t need to keep updating content to fit with trends or topics that are only current for the time. Keeping your content Evergreen makes your content relevant all the time!

CONTENT MISTAKE #7: YOU ARE TOO FOCUSED ON SELLING

Your audience wants to learn something new. They are often looking for a solution to a problem. Don’t just focus on selling your service or products. You want to teach your audience and become a trusted expert.

If your reader wants to know how to decorate a cake, they should be able to do so once they have finished your article – rather than just talking about all the tools they can purchase with no information on how to use them.

You also want to be confident in knowing what you talk about. As you educate your audience, they will turn to you as a valuable resource when they need a solution.

LET YOUR CONTENT SHINE!

You are now ready to hit your content strategy out of the park! Score! When content is done right, it can be highly effective in reaching your audience and you’ll be recognized as an expert in your industry.

Review these tips and make updates to your content strategy as needed.